Ben Carson: Ebola could be used for terrorism

Dr. Ben Carson is questioning safety precautions being taken by U.S. health officials, warning that fluids-tainted with Ebola could be used for bioterrorism.

Carson, a former pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital who became a favorite of conservatives after criticizing President Obama, said the administration isn’t considering the many ways the deadly virus could spread or fall into the wrong hands.

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In an interview with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto on Wednesday, Carson invoked the specter of terrorists bribing a lab worker for urine tainted with Ebola and using the sample to cause “a lot of damage.”

“Somebody’s going to say, ‘That’s crazy, that can never happen,’” said Carson. “Such things have been known to happen. We have to guard against worst case scenarios.”

Asked if U.S. health officials were prepared for such a scenario, Carson responded, “Obviously we’re not.”

Carson said the government should not have brought two American missionaries who contracted Ebola in Liberia back to the U.S., warning that they could potentially unleash an outbreak here.

“We could have easily sent a properly equipped airplane, we have medical ships, we have various things that we could use to treat individuals and then bring them back when they’re no longer even possibly contagious,” he said.

Dr. Kent Brantly who worked with Samaritan’s Purse and Nancy Writebol with SIM USA are at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., where they are being treated.

Another conservative commentator, Ann Coulter, blasted Brantly for heading to Africa instead of doing missionary work in the U.S.

The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed over 900 deaths with 1,700 confirmed cases mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is the worst outbreak of the near fatal disease in history, sparking an international effort to contain the virus.

A Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, died in Nigeria from the disease last month.